Although neither Tom Ince or Georgi Chakvetadze are injured, Valerien Ismael intimated that tomorrow’s season opener with QPR at Vicarage Road (3pm) may come too soon for them.

Ince did not feature in the early part of pre-season after his move from Reading but has been working with the first-team squad more recently.

Meanwhile, Georgian international Chakvetadze only received his clearance to join the Hornets on loan from Belgian side KAA Gent this week and so is a little behind in his preparation.

“Tom Ince is not injured, Tom is training with the squad but started later than expected,” Ismael explained.

“We don’t want to rush and we don’t need to take any risks to push players.

“Now is his second full week with the squad, and we need to assess after each week how he is feeling.

“He knows this league and he knows he needs to be at 100% to bring all his quality. At the moment, he is not 100%.

“I think we needed to work with Georgi carefully because he had to wait for his visa, and now he has it we need to raise the intensity of his work. We’ll see if that’s enough for the squad tomorrow.”

Nonetheless, the head coach is pleased with the fitness of his squad both ahead of tomorrow’s game and after pre-season generally.

“We have had big availability all summer, I think it was over 90% of the squad,” he said.

“That’s not normally the case, especially when you come in as a new manager with new training methods.

“With new ways of training there is always a concern but I think we have worked well. To be fair the players came back in perfect shape and that was helpful.

“There are always small issues and people miss two or three days of training but the players came back quickly. We are almost at full strength.”

Another summer signing, Jake Livermore, adds experience to the squad.

“Not only do we have Jake, we have other players who will step up and take responsibility,” Ismael pointed out.

“We have our captain Daniel Bachmann, Wesley Hoedt, Ken Sema, Imran Louza and Ben Hamer. Along with Jake, that is our leadership group.

“We will look for all of them to bring their experience. Jake is part of that: I know him, he knows me, he knows the way to train.

“He is a big, big support to the young players and helps them on the pitch. We’ve seen that already in pre-season.”

Ismael chose to spend a full seven weeks at London Colney to prepare for the coming season, whereas many other clubs had some time overseas.

“I think it was important that we had enough time to work with the squad. It’s been seven weeks, a long pre-season,” he said.

“But that has allowed us to change a lot of things at the club. We’ve changed the mentality, we’ve changed the approach, we’ve changed the way we train.

“It’s been a long, long, long pre-season but I think it has been worth it so far, and we are very satisfied. It was the first step in our goals for this season, to make sure we create a work ethic and environment.

“Then the second step is now, to start the season strong.

“Everyone is motivated, everyone is fit, everyone has a big desire to start well. But the proof of that comes on the pitch. The ball starts rolling tonight.”